WVCO is an American radio station

Radio station

Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

 in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Myrtle Beach is a coastal city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is situated on the center of a large and continuous stretch of beach known as the Grand Strand in northeastern South Carolina. It is considered to be a major tourist destination in the...

, market. They play a mix of oldies

Oldies

Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....

/Carolina beach music

Beach music

Beach music, also known as Carolina beach music, is a regional genre which developed from various musical styles of the forties, fifties and sixties. These styles ranged from big band swing instrumentals to the more raucous sounds of blues/jump blues, jazz, doo-wop, boogie, rhythm and blues,...

/shag

Carolina shag

Carolina Shag is a six-count partner dance done mostly to moderate tempo music . During the dance the upper body and hips hardly move as the legs do convoluted kicks and fancy footwork. The lead is the center of attention, and the follow's steps either mirror the lead's or mark time while the lead...

 and have a large than average playlist.

History

By the mid-1990s, WVCO aired the same programming as WYAK

WLFF

WSYN is an classic hits music formatted radio station licensed to Surfside Beach, South Carolina and serves the Grand Strand area. The Cumulus Media outlet is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast at 103.1 MHz with an ERP of 8 kW...

, which was country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

. On October 1, 1996, Pinnacle Broadcasting Co. announced its purchase of WYAK, WMYB

WMYB

WMYB is a Hot adult contemporary radio station licensed to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It serves the Florence and Myrtle Beach areas. The NextMedia outlet is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast at 92.1 MHz with an effective radiated power of 94 kW...

 and WRNN-FM

WRNN-FM

WRNN-FM is a News/Talk radio station licensed to Socastee, South Carolina and serves the Grand Strand area. The NextMedia outlet is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast at 99.5 MHz with an effective radiated power of 21.5 kW...

. Once completed, Pinnacle intended to continue the lease agreement of WVCO's former owners.

On January 1, 1997 the station played "Macarena

Macarena (song)

"Macarena" is a Spanish dance song by Los del Río about a woman of the same name. Appearing on the 1994 album A mí me gusta, it was an international hit between 1995 and 1996, and continues to have a cult following. It was ranked the "#1 Greatest One-Hit Wonder of all Time" by VH1 in 2002.The song...

" over 2000 times (including several mixes) then became "WELVIS" for the weekend of Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

's 62nd birthday, then stunted

Stunting (broadcasting)

In radio broadcasting, stunting occurs when a station abruptly airs programming that is seemingly uncharacteristic compared to what they normally play...

 with various musical styles, and finally switched to smooth jazz

Smooth jazz

Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....

.

After Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

 died, WVCO played just his music the entire weekend.

On August 18 and 19, 1998, the station repeatedly played Vanessa L. Williams

Vanessa L. Williams

Vanessa Lynn Williams is an American pop-R&B recording artist, producer, dancer, model, actress and showgirl. In 1983, she became the first woman of African-American descent to be crowned Miss America, but a scandal generated by her having posed for nude photographs published in Penthouse magazine...

 singing the words "pick the pieces up and start again" followed by a tape

Magnetic tape sound recording

The use of magnetic tape for sound recording originated around 1930. Magnetizable tape revolutionized both the radio broadcast and music recording industries. It did this by giving artists and producers the power to record and re-record audio with minimal loss in quality as well as edit and...

 rewinding. The new beach music format began with "Summertime" by Billy Stewart

Billy Stewart

Billy Stewart was an American musical artist, with a highly distinctive scat-singing style, who enjoyed popularity in the 1960s.-Biography:...

. This marked the first time the music that began along the Grand Strand

Grand Strand

The Grand Strand refers to a large stretch of beaches on the East Coast of the United States extending from Little River to Georgetown in the U.S. State of South Carolina. It consists of 60+ miles along an essentially uninterrupted arc of beach land, beginning around the Little River and...

 had a radio home. "Fessa" John Hook hosted the syndicated "Top 40 Countdown", "Fish Fry Show" and "Classics Show" on the Rhythm 'N Beach Network, including WVCO, and "Ocean Drive Pavilion Show", on WVCO only. 94.9 the Surf described its music format as "Beach

Surf music

Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1965, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music...

, Boogie

Boogie (genre)

Boogie is an electronic/funk-influenced variation of post-disco.Boogie, as one of the post-disco subgenres, lacks the four-on-the-floor beat, which is a "traditional" rhythm of disco music. Aside from the moderate influence of synthpop, boogie heavily draws from funk music...

 and Blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

". The music was categorized as rhythmic oldies

Rhythmic oldies

Rhythmic Oldies is a radio format that concentrates on the rhythmic, disco or dance genres of music. Playlists may span from the 1970s through the early 1990s...

 but included much more variety than the typical radio station. Many songs were from the 50s, and the station's focus was beach music

Beach music

Beach music, also known as Carolina beach music, is a regional genre which developed from various musical styles of the forties, fifties and sixties. These styles ranged from big band swing instrumentals to the more raucous sounds of blues/jump blues, jazz, doo-wop, boogie, rhythm and blues,...

, a style made popular on the South Carolina coast. Personalities included Billy Smith, Ted Bell and Ray Scott. The station aired the syndicated On the Beach radio show hosted by Charlie Brown

Charlie Brown (DJ)

Ed Weiss, known on-air as Charlie Brown, is a disc jockey on WPCM radio in Burlington, North Carolina, United States, and host of the syndicated beach music program On the Beach with Charlie Brown, heard on nearly 40 stations, mostly in The Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia.-Radio career:Charlie...

.

In 2006, WVCO moved its studio from Myrtle Beach to 429 Pine Avenue in North Myrtle Beach, the former home of WNMB

WNMB

WNMB is an oldies music formatted radio station licensed to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA, and serves the greater Myrtle Beach area. The Norman Communications, Inc., outlet is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast at 900 kHz with a TPO of 500W...

 and WNMB-FM

WEZV

WEZV is a radio station broadcasting an Easy listening format. Licensed to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA, the station serves the Myrtle Beach and Wilmington areas. The station is currently owned by Fidelity Broadcasting Corporation and is branded as Easy 105.9.-History:WNMB signed on...

.

WVCO added the syndicated Mike Harvey show and Clemson University

Clemson University

Clemson University is an American public, coeducational, land-grant, sea-grant, research university located in Clemson, South Carolina, United States....

 football and basketball.

WVCO was named Station of the Year at the Carolina Beach Music Awards for nine years in a row. In the middle of 2009, WVCO moved out of the WNMB North Myrtle Beach Pine Avenue location to another NMB site to allow for expansion at WNMB.

In mid-December 2010, WVCO owner Harvey Graham died. The station was then left in legal limbo because of a pending civil case involving a failed condo development that Harvey Graham was building near the WVCO transmitter. The Surf 94.9 went off the air on January 16, 2011, as a result of owner Harvey Graham's bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

filing in November 2009 and the legal problems with the failed condo case. The station returned to the air on April 14, 2011, with reduced power but restored to full power operation by May 2011.